JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas (AFNS) — Air Force Personnel Center officials here have centralized how Permanent Change of Station orders are processed, validated and authenticated.
Since Oct. 2011, the Total Force Service Center-San Antonio has been managing the PCS orders process and has authenticated more than 82,000 orders and 19,000 amendments. Before October, the PCS orders and authentication program was managed by base-level military personnel sections and force support squadrons.
“We centralized the PCS orders process because it saved money for the Air Force,” said Master Sgt. Melissa Ross, TFSC-SA assignments section manager. “By managing the process here, we are able to catch a lot of mistakes that base-level MPSs weren’t catching. We are also saving man hours as well because we don’t have to do as many amendments to correct entitlement mistakes on PCS orders.”
Today, MPSs approve PCS orders while TFSC-SA representatives validate and authenticate them. The entire process now takes two to three days and Airmen are getting their PCS orders about 120 days before their projected departure dates, which is 30 days faster than when the process was managed at base-level MPSs. The TFSC-SA is also taking on these additional responsibilities with no additional manpower or funding.
“There are 82 MPSs in the Air Force with about five to six people managing relocations and we are doing it with a staff of 10 personnelists,” said Senior Master Sgt. W T Littlejohn, TFSC-SA transitions superintendent. “The difference is we are using better technology combined with our online capabilities to manage the workload and be more efficient.”
To get the process up and running at the TFSC-SA, a team of personnelists spent three months developing an updated Personnel Services Delivery guide to provide specific guidance and instructions to the Air Force personnel community on how PCS orders were going to be processed and authenticated. The PSD guide also outlined the roles and responsibilities for program managers at AFPC and base-level MPSs.
“The process was new last October, so we had to make sure our team understood all the policies and regulations that governed what Airmen were authorized on their PCS orders,” said Tech. Sgt. Carlton Carter, TFSC-SA day shift assignments supervisor. “We spent about three months reviewing orders that had been previously authenticated to see what types of errors were being made. After that, we were able to develop our own internal processes to manage the program here.”
The transition to centrally managing the PCS orders process is almost seamless for Airmen who are using the TFSC-SA for personnel assistance.
“As long as Airmen meet all their PCS requirements, they won’t see any differences as to who is processing their orders,” said Littlejohn. “They get guidance and assistance on the PCS orders process through Tier 0 and 1 support at the TFSC-SA and myPers website.”
For general information about personnel services and programs, visit the myPers website at http://mypers.af.mil.
